{"id":9737,"date":"2023-06-28T13:45:04","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T18:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abidingfathers.org\/?p=9737"},"modified":"2023-06-28T13:45:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T18:45:04","slug":"dont-mess-with-gods-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/2023\/06\/28\/dont-mess-with-gods-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t mess with God&#8217;s design!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In America today, as maybe never before, and in other countries around the world, we are seeing a total disdain for Biblical covenant marriage. In some sectors, it is like\u2026\u201canything goes\u201d. Same sex marriage, polygamy, cohabitation, having children without a father in the home. And the divorce rate has become similar for those that consider themselves Christian as it is in the secular part of society.<\/p>\n<p>There have been multiple articles published over the last several years questioning the value or need of a father in the home. We have just celebrated Father\u2019s Day, at least here in America. For me, and many of you I\u2019m sure, it was a blessing. We had three generations at our home. Praise God!<\/p>\n<p>In my daily Bible reading, I was in Malachi this morning. A set of verses really struck me. He is addressing false worship, with God not accepting it.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u2018But you say, \u201cWhy does he not?\u201d Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking?\u00a0<u>Godly offspring<\/u>. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.\u201d\u2019\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Mal. 2.14-16<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cNoting God\u2019s original institution of marriage (Genesis 2:24), in which he made two into one, Malachi reminded them that God provided only one woman for one man. Though he had the life-giving power of the Spirit and could have made Adam a number of wives, he created only one \u2013\u00a0<strong>to raise up a godly offspring.\u00a0<\/strong>God knew that when both parents remain faithful to their marriage vows, the children can be given the security which provides the basis for godly living. Today, this foundational divine institution of marriage is being threatened.\u201d *<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The birth rate in America is declining. And when you consider the tens of millions of babies that have been aborted over the last four decades in America, you see clear evidence of abandonment of God\u2019s original design for marriage and procreation. His first four commands to Adam were these.\u00a0<strong><em>\u201cProcreate, fill the earth, subdue it and rule over it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>See, God ordained marriage to produce children for generations and generations who would worship and serve him. We are breaking his original design for his creation in so many ways. Only God\u2019s judgment can come from this, which must lead to repentance on our part, followed by the grace of God to repair what is broken.<\/p>\n<p>Adoption is as valuable as natural childbirth. Both are God-ordained and necessary. \u00a0Dads, moms, husbands, wives\u2026God is calling fathers back into their rightful place in the family as servant leaders. While at the same time we\u2019re seeing very bleak statistics, God is working powerfully through ministries such as\u00a0<em>Abiding<\/em>\u00a0Fathers and Padre de Coraz\u00f3n here and in other parts of the world to return to his original design. We believe he is fulfilling Malachi 4.6.\u00a0<strong><em>\u201cAnd he will turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the hearts of children to their fathers\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>And if you want to know how serious it is with God, here is the last part of this verse. Read it carefully.\u00a0<strong><em>\u201clest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Join us to fulfill it in our lifetime, before it is too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In America today, as maybe never before, and in other countries around the world, we are seeing a total disdain for Biblical covenant marriage. In some sectors, it is like\u2026\u201canything goes\u201d. Same sex marriage, polygamy, cohabitation, having children without a father in the home. And the divorce rate has become similar for those that consider [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[535,536,101],"class_list":["post-9737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marriage","tag-covenant","tag-husband-and-wife","tag-marriage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/af2.musiimes.space\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}